Apparatus for material fluffing

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for the fluffing, delumping, pulping, or blending of various materials (e.g. moist fibrous filter or press cake). The infeed material is advanced through a fluffing chamber by a rotor having fluffing discs. A scuff plate surrounding the rotor is provided with rows of projections which create high turbulence in the air column carrying the material. The material is momentarily retained in dwell regions in the chamber for agitation.

United States Patent Tapscott et al.

[54] APPARATUS FOR MATERIAL FLUFFING [72] inventors: Jesse J. Tapscott; Harold T. Andersen,

both of Santa Rosa, Calif.

Rietz Manufacturing Co., Santa Rosa, Calif.

22 Filed: Dec. 10,1970 211 App]. No.1 96,724

[73] Assignee:

52 us. Cl ..259/s |5ll ..B0lI7/22, B0lf7/26 [SKI Field of Search ..259/8. DIG. 30, 7, 107, I08,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,520,375 12/1924 Trust. ..259/l07 51 June 20,1972

2555562 miss 66" Flottmann ..259/s 3,222,141 12/1965 Donaldson.... ,....259/8 Fisher ..259/8 Primary Examiner-Robert W. Jenkins Attorney-Flehr, Hohbach, Test, Albritton & Herbert [57] ABSTRACT Apparatus for the fluffing, delumping, pulping, or blending of various materials (e.g. moist fibrous filter or press cake). The infeed material is advanced through -a fluffing chamber by a rotor having fluffing discs. A scuff plate surrounding the rotor is provided with rows of projections which create high turbulence in the air column carrying the material. The material is momentarily retained in dwell regions in the chamber for agitation.

10 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEnJunzo m2 SHEET 2 BF 3 #42040 Z'flwazzi INVENTOR5 flmam irs APPARATUS FOR MATERIAL FLUFFING BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Prior art apparatus for subdividing masses of various materials include a variety of types and combinations of disintegrators and grinders. Previous designs include rotary hammer mills or axial crushers utilizing mechanical impact for disintegration. In the food industry conventional blenders are provided which employ a high-speed rotor having cutting blades to disintegrate and inter-mix various ingredients. The need has been recognized for apparatus capable of breaking up lumps or masses of various materials (e.g. moist filter or press cake) 7 to produce a fluffed mass suitable for further processing (e.g. drying and baling or incineration), without degradation of the individual fibers or particles and with minimum power consumption.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Another object is to provide apparatus of the above character adapted to perform a fluffing operation on fibrous or combined granular and fibrous material, a delumping operation on granular materiaLa pulping operation on food products such as fruits and vegetables, or a blending operation on two or more materials.

The foregoing and additional objects and features of the invention are provided through apparatus incorporating a rotor journaled for rotation within a housing having scuff plate agitating means surrounding the rotor. The rotor includes a plurality of fluffing discs axially spaced to define swell regions which momentarily retain suspended material for agitation and size reduction. The scuff plate includes a plurality of projections extending radially inward to create high air turbulence. Blades on the discs have a progressively increasing pitch in the direction of material flow to advance the material with increasing velocity as fluffing progresses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational view of apparatus for incorporating the invention;

FIG. 2 is an axial cross sectional view to an enlarged scale of a segment of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of a fluffing disc for the invention;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary developmental view illustrating the apparatus scuff plate and the relationship of the disc blade tips thereto;

FIG. 5 is a perspective, partially cut-away view of another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is an axial cross sectional fragmentary view of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Apparatus 10 shown in FIGS. 1-4 can be used in material processing operations such as fluffing, delumping, pulping or blending. As used herein the term fluffing refers particularly to the separation of moist lumps or cakes of fibrous material into essentially individual fibers or small fluffed fiber bundles. Delumping refers to size reduction of granular material from large lumps to essentially individual granules or small masses containing a number of granules. Pulping refers to reduction nan:

of relatively soft succulent fruits and vegetables from whole or chopped pieces to a slurry. Blending refers to the blending of two or more materials with or without fluffing.

Apparatus 10 comprises a housing 12 forming a vertically axised cylindrical fluffing chamber 13. A rotor 14 is mounted on a drive shaft 16 for rotation in the chamber. Housing 12 is supported on a frame or base 18 through fourpedestals 20 arrayed around the shaft. Drive shaft 16 is journaled to a mounting plate 22 by means of a bearing 24, and is journaled at its lower end to base 18 by means of a bearing 26. The shaft and rotor are driven by means of a suitable motor 28 mounted above base 18. A conventional drive arrangement for powering the rotor is provided, and in the illustrated embodiment this arrangement includes a powered drive pulley 30, a plurality of V-type belts 32, and a driven pulley 34 keyed to the lower end of the drive shaft.

The infeed product which is to be fluffed, e.g., paper pulp press cake crumbs, is directed downwardly into the fluffing chamber through an inlet conduit 36 secured by suitable means such as the illustrated bolts to the flanged upper rim of housing 12. Housing 12 further'defines a lower discharge section 40 which is provided with a tangential discharge outlet 42 through which the reduced particles exit into the desired downstream processing unit, e.g., drying and baling apparatus where the infeed material is paper pulp press cake.

Rotor 14 comprises a plurality, preferably three, of fluffing discs 44, 46, 48 keyed through respective hubs 50, 52, 54 for rotation with drive shaft 16. The fluffing discs are axially spaced within the fluffing chamber by means of suitable spacer rings 56,58 to define annular dwell regions 60,62. A paddle-wheel type expeller 64 is keyed to shaft 16 downstream of bottom disc 48 and within discharge section 40. A spacer shaft 66 is mounted between bearing 24 and hub 68, and a retainer cap 70 is secured as by a pair of bolts to the distal end of shaft 16 retaining the three discs, spacers and expeller in position.

Each flufiing disc is formed with a plurality of blades 72 at their outer periphery. In the'embodiment of FIG. 1 the blades 72 are formed integral with the disc and are each twisted about a radial axis with a pitch effective to advance a column of air and entrained material along the fluffing chamber as the rotor is turned. The blade pitch increases progressively from top to bottom for the three discs to allow the increasing volume of the fluffed product to move faster through the chamber as it approaches the bottom or discharge end of the chamber. Thus, in the preferred embodiment the blades 72 of top disc 44 are twisted with a substantially 10 inclination from the horizontal, the blades 74 of middle disc 46 are twisted with a 15 inclination, and the blades 76 of bottom disc 48 are twisted with a 20 inclination. v

The inside of fluffing chamber 13 is provided with a cylindrical lining or scuff plate 78. The scuff plate extends from just below bottom disc 48 to a region above upper disc 44, e.g., several inches above the upper disc as in the preferred embodiment. The scuff plate is provided with a plurality of elongate inward projections80 wedge shaped in cross section and arranged in superposed rows as illustrated in the developmental view of FIG. 4. The major axes of the projections in ad- 1 jacent rows are oppositely inclined across the direction of blade-tip rotation and adjacent projections in adjacent rows are aligned along substantially normal axes to effect constantly changing air direction from row-to-row. In the illustrated embodiment the projections extend approximately one-fourth inch from the inner surface of the scuff plate, are approximately one-fourth inch wide and 1 inch long, and are arranged in rows at 45 inclination from the horizontal.

Discharge expeller 64 preferably is of the paddle-wheel type comprising a plurality of paddle wheels 82 extending radially from hub 68. The reduced material received from the fluffing section is discharged through outlet 42 by the action of centrifugal force and outwardly pumped air resulting from rotation of expeller 64.

The use and operation for the embodiment of apparatus is as follows. Assume that it is desired to separate moist paper pulp press cake crumbs or lumps into small fiber bundles containing a small number of fibers for drying and baling. Relative large pieces of such press cake, e.g., up to cubic inches, can be efficiently processed with minimum power requirement and with a minimum or no degradation of the pulp as by grinding. Also individual fibers are not twisted or knotted together. Apparatus constructed according to the embodiment described above can be employed with a fluffing chamber inner diameter of about 24 inches. The rotor 14 can be driven at various moderate speeds. The infeed product is introduced through inlet 36 which directs it into the fluffing chamber. The air stream moves over and around the projections of the scuff plate. The rows alternate from those which direct the air moving over them upwardly to those which direct the air downwardly, thus creating high air turbulence and constantly changing air direction to agitate the product while it is suspended in the air stream. A quantity of the product is momentarily suspended in the dwell spaces or regions 60,62 between the discs and subjected therein to the high air turbulence. This turbulence and agitation causes the pieces of cake lumps to come apart while still retaining the product quality. Fluffing results in a progressive decrease in bulk density, and the increasing volume of the fluffed product is caused to move faster as it progresses through the fluffing chamber by the action of the progressively increasing pitch of the blades. The fluffed product leaving the final disc 48 is discharged from outlet 42 through the action of expeller 64 for subsequent drying and baling operations. Such a product consists of individual fluffed bundles of fibers which may range in size from single fiber to fir-inch cube and which are of suitable form for efficient drying and baling.

Apparatus 10 is also highly effective as a flufier to reduce moist paper mill sludge press cake containing both fiber and granular solids. The cake is reduced in the manner described above into small fiber bundles containing both fiber and granules which are discharged for subsequent drying and incineration.

The apparatus can also be used in delumping operations for the reduction of lumps of granular dry chemicals. Operation of the apparatus in the manner explained above reduces the lumps to a discrete material in preparation for subsequent materials handling and further processing.

The apparatus can also be used in operations for pulping fruits and vegetables (e.g., tomatoes) to produce a slurry of juice and solid matter. Relatively soft succulent materials of this kind are readily reduced to pulp form.

A further use is for the blending of relatively dry fibers and nonfibrous materials subsequent to other processing operations.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate another embodiment of the invention comprising fluffer apparatus 82 of larger dimensions providing increased material processing capacity as compared to the embodiment described above. Fluffer apparatus 82 comprises a housing 84 defining a cylindrical fluffing chamber 85 containing a fluffer rotor 86. This rotor is powered by a suitable motor and drive arrangement, not shown. The infeed product to the fluffing chamber is received through cylindrical inlet 88, and the fluffed material exits from an expeller section through a tangential outlet 92 for subsequent processing operations.

Rotor 86 comprises a plurality of discs 94, 96, 98 keyed to drive shaft 100 which in turn is joumaled for rotation within the housing by suitable bearing means including bearing 102 mounted below plate 104. Spacers 106,108 are provided along the shaft between the hubs of the fluffer discs. A paddlewheel type expeller is keyed to shaft 100, a spacer shaft 112 is provided between the hub of the expeller and bearing 102, and a cap 114 is secured by means such as bolts to the distal end of the drive shaft to retain the rotor elements in position.

The fluffer discs are provided with a plurality of respective fluffer blades 116, 118, removably mounted at the outer periphery of the discs. Each removable blade comprises a U- shaped double-bladed element, and each blade element is twisted about a radial axis with a pitch effective to advance the material downwardly within the fluffer chamber as the rotor is turned at a moderate speed. The blade pitch progressively increases from top to bottom to advance the product at a higher velocity as fluffing progresses and product volume increases.

The rotating column of air moved by the rotor is confined into an annulus by means of cylindrical walls 122, 124 and 126 extending between adjacent discs and below the lower disc 98. The spacing between the walls 122, 124, the overhanging disc edges, and the housing defines the dwell regions which momentarily retain the suspended product for agitation.

The inside of the flufiing chamber is lined with a cylindrical scuff plate 128 extending from just below the lower disc 98 to a region above the upper disc 94. Scuff plate 128. is similar in construction to the scufi plate for the previously described embodiment and includes a plurality of elongate projections wedge-shaped in cross section and arranged in superposed rows. These projections are inclined at an angle, e.g., 45, across the direction of blade rotation, and the projections in alternate rows are oppositely inclined to create high air turbulence as the air moves over and around the projections while constantly changing direction. This action agitates the product while it is suspended in the air stream and causes the material lumps and cakes to come apart without loss of product quality.

Flufied material leaving the final series of blades 120 is urged by rotating expeller paddles 130 outwardly by centrifugal force and the air pumping effect through discharge outlet 92.

In general the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5 operates in the same manner as in the embodiment of FIG. 1. During operation the selected material, e.g., paper pulp press cake crumbs, is introduced through inlet 88 as rotor 86 is turned at high speed. The material is advanced downwardly with the annular air column, and the high air turbulence enhanced by the action of scuff plate 128 is effective to fluff and disintegrate the material into small particle size. Increasing blade pitch is effective to move the material with increasing velocity as fluffing progresses. The fluffed material is discharged by expeller 110 through outlet 92 for subsequent processing such as drying and baling steps.

While the embodiments herein are at present considered to be preferred, it is understood that numerous variations and and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such variations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. In fluffing apparatus, a housing having an inlet for receiving infeed material and an outlet for discharging the material,

a rotor joumaled for rotation within the housing, the rotor including a plurality of fluffing discs axially spaced to define dwell regions to momentarily retain suspended material for agitation, each disc including a plurality of peripheral blades having a pitch to advance the material toward said outlet upon rotation of the rotor, agitating means in the housing including a plurality of projections extending radially inwardly to create turbulence in the air column being advanced by the rotor for agitating said material, and means to rotate the rotor.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the pitch of said blades progressively increases for respective discs in the direction of material flow to move the material at an increasing velocity as product fluffing progresses.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said blades comprise radially outward extending elements integral with respective discs, each element being twisted about a radial axis to define said blade pitch.

4. Apparatus as in claim 1 and including material expeller means downstream of the fluffing discs to discharge the material through said outlet.

across the direction of blade rotation to create turbulence in the air moving along the scuff plate means.

8. Apparatus as in claim 7 wherein the projections in adjacent rows are inclined in opposite directions.

9. Apparatus as in claim 8 wherein adjacent projections in adjacent rows are aligned along substantially normal axes to effect constantly changing air direction from row-to-row to create air turbulence.

10. Apparatus as in claim 7 wherein said projections are wedge-shaped in cross section. 

1. In fluffing apparatus, a housing having an inlet for receiving infeed material and an outlet for discharging the material, a rotor journaled for rotation within the housing, the rotor including a plurality of fluffing discs axially spaced to define dwell regions to momentarily retain suspended material for agitation, each disc including a plurality of peripheral blades having a pitch to advance the material toward said outlet upon rotation of the rotor, agitating means in the housing including a plurality of projections extending radially inwardly to create turbulence in the air column being advanced by the rotor for agitating said material, and means to rotate the rotor.
 2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the pitch of said blades progressively increases for respective discs in the direction of material flow to move the material at an increasing velocity as product fluffing progresses.
 3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said blades comprise radially outward extending elements integral with respective discs, each element being twisted about a radial axis to define said blade pitch.
 4. Apparatus as in claim 1 and including material expeller means downstream of the fluffing discs to discharge the material through said outlet.
 5. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the rotor includes cylindrical wall means extending between adjacent discs intermediate the radial dimension thereof to define said dwell regions with the radially outward overhanging disc edges and the housing.
 6. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the agitating means comprises cylindrical scuff plate means positioned in the housing in close-spaced relationship around the outer periphery of said blades.
 7. Apparatus as in claim 6 wherein said scuff plate means comprises a plurality of elongate projections arranged in a plurality of superposed rows, the projections being inclined across the direction of blade rotation to create turbulence in the air moving along the scuff plate means.
 8. Apparatus as in claim 7 wherein the projections in adjacent rows are inclined in opposite directions.
 9. Apparatus as in claim 8 wherein adjacent projections in adjacent rows are aligned along substantially normal axes to effect constantly changing air direction from row-to-row to create air turbulence.
 10. Apparatus as in claim 7 wherein said projections are wedge-shaped in cross section. 